How stupid are average people?

I’d say half of them are below average.

Go to a casino.

I used to work in retail and I felt like many of them couldn’t really read

I don't know, OP.

Here. Test yourself and find out.

The average American is borderline retarded. Hence, the most recent election.

Well a large chunk of posters on here seem to think that Luigi guy is "hot as fuck". So dumb, and vision impaired?

OP. she's not entirely wrong. Australians use British grammar and spelling. The correct term would be UK English.

r7 And then things get awkward when the Aussie on holiday in the UK asks the local British shop keep "where are their thongs."

R7 The correct term would be Australian English. They don't speak British English, you complete moron.

R6 thinks the CEO killer is ugly. What an original take, r6. Thank you for sharing.

R10 What an idiotic reason to bump this thread.

The right answer is Hungarian!

I think the average IQ by definition is 100 but who's counting

Especially in Australia

OP, do you really need to ask that after the latest election?

Our education system has failed for several generations now. The system is designed to let people through. Teachers hands are tied. Students and parents are not held accountable. Bad behavior and class disruption is the form. So now you have stupid parents raising stupid kids who have no concept or respect for their teachers or fellow students

. It's good for the rich and super rich because it's easier to manipulate stupid people. They don't think for themselves. They don't have critical thinking skills. They don't look beyond the obvious. Their worlds are very small. And they never learn the value of delayed gratification - working for something. Everything must be immediate. Mist have it NOW. So they never accumulate enough wealth to gain power or position. The sad truth is we are all doomed because we are a country of fat and stupid people.

the majority of Americans can't read past a sixth grade level.

[quote]I think the average IQ by definition is 100 but who's counting. Especially in Australia.

Hey! We can count AND speak English!

(A heap of other languages are also spoken here, of course. We have large populations of Vietnamese, Chinese, Italian, Greek and Lebanese immigrants, and in Aboriginal Australia over 200 languages were spoken. Some of them still exist though many were wiped out by colonial laws.)

If you ever have to interact with the public, and I mean a broad cross section of the public, you won't have to ask this question. You'll know.

r15, the threat of students assaulting teachers is very real, my teacher friends say the problem exploded after kids returned to school once the pandemic subsided. I wish teachers could use physical punishment on kids, the things they have to go through are messed up.

R15, also, as an avid non-fiction lover, it is really depressing to learn that most kids don't like reading and don't read for pleasure.

"Jesus wasn't no Jew! Jesus was a CHRISTIAN!!"

R21 that really is depressing. I see people writing all the time that "America was founded as a xtian nation on biblical principles". I don't know who started this shit but these people failed American history, obviously. You can point out actual quotes from our founders but they won't budge.

🤦🏽

At 60, I am the oldest person at work. I recently switched careers (so much happier working with animals) but I'm really surprised how much the kids I work with don't know and seem uninterested in learning anything outside their immediate world in the now. If it's not on TikTok, they aren't interested.

When I was young I was a voracious reader and loved history plus I watched old Hwood movies with my mother and my grandma. I made a comment about the Three Stooges and got blank looks. None of them had heard of them and none were interested in finding out. I think that's the difference now. Back then we would ask and learn. Now they don't know and aren't interested in knowing. I guess it's a general lack of curiosity.

Smellyanne Conway brilliantly legitimised lies, ignorance and stupidity.

People are saying America was founded a Christian nation. So it is true.

I just took R4’s linked quiz. I’m embarrassed to admit my score was 80%. I thought I’d aced it. Anyone else take it?

I don't even see an R4. Must be a blocked troll.

R24 is right on the mark. The newest generation is lazy, unconcerned, and unconnected to the rest of the world if it’s not on their phone. They can’t hold a conversation, don’t look you in the eye, need constant praise for everything, and when they disagree with you-even if you are right- they feel “uncomfortable”. They are uncomfortable with anything that doesn’t serve their immediate interest. And in the work world they are useless. They don’t believe in hard work. Some of them don’t know that clothes are not meant to be pjs. They are insulted easily, everything is sexual, and they get upset if someone experiences what they assume is bigotry. But they take responsibility for nothing. That’s what the “ # me too” movement is about: women not taking control over their own equalities but upset that someone else may have control of their own.

R28, gen Z lives in their head more than any other generation thanks to social media. They need to be constantly stimulated or they will become depressed. Aldous Huxley was really onto something.

This might be a genre of TikToks but I come across this guy once in a while.. Come on people, are these hard questions?

OP you're a DL'er and you have to ask?

I can go into the break room at work and everyone of those kids will be on their phones some with earbuds. None of them talk to each other. It's weird and creepy.

R31 I find most of us older DLers to be above average intelligence. Can't speak for the trolls.

Back in the day, before the internet, I used to win the local radio station’s trivia contest once a month. They had a rule that you couldn’t win more than once a month. I’m not as sharp as I used to be, after being on DL for several decades, but I do win trivia at least once on each cruise I go on.

As bad as the general level of literacy and general knowledge of the world around them is, with the entire sum of human knowlege essentially available on the internet, it's just a bit worse that not only do they not know stuff, but they have no idea how to find basic information.

I'm on a subreddit whose sole purpose is to get reading suggestions. People regularly ask questions like, "what's a book like Animal Farm?" Besides the fact that that specific question has been asked a dozen times in the past month, you could simply google the question and get a list.

So, people are dumb AND lazy or just dumb and even dumber.

Just like income inequality magnifies the gap between the haves and have nots, perhaps there is IQ inequality now. Where the middlings and simpletons are dumber than necessary, by genetics, because they have been stupefied by our putrid education, civil, and popular culture. Destroyed potentials and capacities. It seems to me back in the day simple people had critical thinking skills and some integrity and pride to know what is true and false. And to have an estimation of their own capacities and the grit to try to make the most with that they were given. Many people don't know they are ignorant, nowadays. And some people know they are ignorant and revel in it.

The radio station likely picked the dumbest people for entertainment purposes.

R33 speaking from beyond the grave

at least they're not pretentious windbags R34

R21 And from his photos, Dee, I’m pretty sure he was Norwegian or maybe Danish.

Social media amply demonstrates that many people have an IQ below 100.

The digital age is adding jet fuel to this. People have to think less now that out flat, rectangular computers do everything for us.

We just had a graphic demonstration of the declining iq of people last November, of course.

^^^ our flat

I disagree, R1. I would say 80% are below average.

[quote]I disagree, [R1]. I would say 80% are below average.

Obligatory not r1.

While I get the sarcasm and inherent irony in this statement, for the record: The IQ distribution is set so that the mean, median and mode are all 100, with a standard deviation of 15 to either side.

DL should be a light in the darkness, not a source of bad information.

^that assumes people haven’t gotten dumber in the age of right wing media and social media.

[quote]^that assumes people haven’t gotten dumber in the age of right wing media and social media.

While the "average" may have gone down, it's still a calibrated number. Whatever the "average" is, 50% of people will always be above and 50% will always be below.

When was it calibrated?

They believe car sized drones are piloted by hobby enthusiasts.

They believe airplanes in the distance are car-sized drones.

They speak German in Austria, so in Australia they probably speak Germalan.

I'm one of the smartest people in the world.

I also know I'm the smartest person on DataLounge. Just look at my posts. My brain power just overwhelms you.

Also, did I tell you I get most of my vast sea of knowledge from being a devotee of anime?

I once read my great-grandmother's WWII diaries. Fascinating stuff about her time raising a family and working at Bell Aircraft. At this point, she had not gone back to school to become a nurse and had only her 8th grade education(!) to guide her in life. I couldn't believe how strong of a writer she was. Her thoughts on war, politics, and life were deep and accurate. She knew facts and could use them. Somehow this chick who had been raised on a farm had a better understanding of her world than so many well educated people do today.

There are a lot of ignorant people, who are not stupid. I don't know whether they just close themselves off from ideas that don't conform to a world view influence by upbringing and circumstances.

I know plenty of PhDs and MDs who are just ignorant of sociability. And I know plenty of people with street smarts who are just high school graduates.

As for stupid people...I don't know.

Is the correct answer "British with an Oklahoma accent?"

“ back then we would ask and learn” R24 speaking for an entire generation of Americans with sweet memories of what he thought things were like 40 years ago.

I remember you, you young shits. Your adults thought you bozos only interested in drinking, fucking, and cars. With no interest at all in the things we adults found interesting.

You were not the perfection you think you remember.

Never said we were perfect, you bitter little thing (R55).

R24 Yeah but I know 60 year old idiots who are just as incurious and ignorant. A lot of old people struggle to learn basic standard technology today.

John Cleese said his mother lived throughout the entire 20th century and knew nothing at the end of it.

[quote] I can go into the break room at work and everyone of those kids will be on their phones some with earbuds. None of them talk to each other. It's weird and creepy.

60 yr-old here, and I noticed the same thing when I returned to office work earlier this year. But I can't honestly say I wouldn't have done the same thing if such technology existed back in the day. Gee, I can have the same daily conversation with some "work friend" or I can catch up on an episode of whatever I'm binging. Hmmm.

I’ve often wondered whether people are stupid or simply incurious. Some people I know might lack basic education—like reading, math, or common sense—but still manage to be surprisingly knowledgeable. On the other hand, there are those who are considered “smart” by society’s standards but display a startling lack of curiosity about the world, leaving them uninformed about almost anything.

What’s most striking is how many people can only talk about themselves and their personal experiences. I’ve had co-workers and acquaintances who seem entirely fixated on their families or partners. They’re unable—or unwilling—to discuss music, movies, art, science, politics, or history. Instead, they find their own lives endlessly fascinating, as though that’s enough to sustain meaningful conversation.

This has always been my struggle with people: the gap between curiosity and self-absorption.

How about how a car works and how to fix it? What about being able to replace plumbing in the home? There is being smart and then there is knowing stuff that is important to know.

Every so often when I’m reminded of the stupidity of the majority of the American public, which seems to happen more and more often these days, I think of the quote from H.L. Mencken:

[quote] As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

A thread about the stupidity of Americans quickly devolves into random Australia-bashing posts.

What a surprise!

Americans know zero about the world. They barely know much about America

Back when I used to do MBA recruiting for my firm, students used to ask "what is the most common trait among successful people at your firm" or some such similar question.

My answer was always curiosity. Of course, we checked if the person had "gas in the gas tank and horses under the hood." But, the people who were always the most successful were the ones who were simply curious about the world around them - how and why something was done at client companies, what was the root cause of a problem, what is the range of possible solutions (not just the answer), what alternatives were there, what would happen if...

Curiosity can make up for a lot of things.

R62, where? I don't see them.

Low IQ jobs.

Werner Herzog on Americans

Growing up in the affluent leafy suburbs of New York there were 2 local village idiots who worked as grocery baggers. Everybody knew them and they knew everyone. Adults were respectful and protective of these men. As kids we liked these men and would invite them to come talk and hang out for a bit with us, in summer, if they were walking around the neighborhood.

[quote]What type of job would someone with a lower than average IQ likely have? How would they typically perform at that job (e.g. retail)

While I've been aboard the bash the stupids train along with everyone else, I call bullshit on this article.

First of all, low IQ and low skill, while highly correlated, are not the same, assuming we are not discussing actually mentally handicapped people. If we're just talking people who aren't that smart, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to do many other jobs.

Second, based on the folks here on DL and other folks I've met in my life, the high IQ people are not the most pleasant people on the planet. Frankly, in my biased sample, IQ and EQ are often inversely correlated. There is a reason why people in Sales in a wide range of industries often make it to the CEO job over people from Finance, Accounting, or R&D.

You're wrong. IQ and EQ are positively correlated.

Given how bad American schools are, I’d say very.

[quote] You're wrong. IQ and EQ are positively correlated.

They’re not.

George Carlin had something to say about this.

We are seriously fucking doomed.

What bothers me most is how someone who’s 'incurious' can get offended by someone who’s 'curious'.

Example: I was at my sister’s making a salad and asked where her 'mortar and pestle' was. She said, what’s that? I said, a 'mortar and pestle'—you know, the thing you use to crush spices. I know you have one; I’ve seen you use it. She goes, oh, the 'crushy' thing. Why didn’t you just say so? Then she snarked, you always do or say things to make me sound or look stupid.

Me: I don’t! That’s just what it’s called. How the fuck was I supposed to know you call it a 'crushy' thing and not what it’s actually called? By this point, we were both yelling.

Then her husband chimed in to defend her: you go out of your way to make us look stupid. Only a gay guy would know what a 'mortar and pestle' is.

And there I was, standing there, absolutely dumbfounded. Neither of them had any interest in learning what the fucking thing was actually called. A perfect example of incurious versus curious.

r75 Reading this was quite sobering because I realize how condescending I've come off to many people over the years. I've been told on numerous occasions that I have a tendency to talk down to people and come off as stuck up. I was a lot worse when I was a kid and teen, but once I started working in IT support and learned that I, quite literally, had to 'keep it simple stupid' I stopped interacting with people how I used to and now just tend to 'dumb everything down' when in casual conversation.

Once you've spent an hour over the phone with someone trying to get them to unplug their Ethernet cable, only for them to continuously unplug the HDMI cable connecting their monitor, subsequently causing everything to 'GO BLACK' and then getting yelled at because, obviously you're the crazy one for telling them to unplug something that makes the screen turn off and it's definitely not their willful ignorance for refusing to learn what the fuck an Ethernet cable is in the 21st century -god forbid we call items by their actual names- you learn to humble yourself and finally just start asking people to 'unplug the big fat telephone cord looking thing' just to get them the hell off of your phone and go about the rest of your day in your soul-sucking help desk job in peace.

Because the answer is always 'no,' Ethernet isn't the universally known name for a Cat 5 cable. There are, indeed, people roaming this Earth who have no idea what that is, but still use it on a daily basis.

....

I'm sorry. What were we talking about, again?

poor you. stuck in entry level « IT support » yet superior and bitter

At least I now know who to blame that my tv is always fucked up.

I’ve told this story before, but once, years ago, I approached two people talking at some get-together. One was an older woman, with an English accent, talking to a much younger woman. When I, puckishly, said to the older one that she must be from the UK, the woman said that she was. Immediately, though, the younger one, who seemed terribly wounded by the admission, shot back at her, “I thought you said you were from England?!” The older woman just shrugged it off.

Since deciding to get a Pensionado visa in Panama, I've been watching YouTubes of people who live there talking about the country, and I am positively appalled at they way they pronounce things.

A woman pronounced the town of Santiago "San-ti-A-go" and a man pronounced the national airline, Copa, as "Cop-a," like cop as in police officer.

I spent the rest of the day hearing Barry Manilow's "Copacabana" playing in my head.

Of course, I could go on and on about mispronunciations even on NPR, FFS, and misspellings in the Wapo and the NYT. Fuck. Now I'm depressed. Oh well.

Sweetie, look at all the positives, not the negatives. You'll enjoy your retirement.

I once had a college graduate, an English major, excoriate me for using big pretntious words because I used the world "ameliorate" in a sentence. I was like, where I come from that's a sixth grade word, but she was from Tennessee where words are mysterious objects.

What was really troubling was the aggressiveness: oh I heard a word I didn't know, I can't look it up or ask what it means, you've OFFENDED me by not knowing that I as an English major do not know any more words than appear in a comic strip bubble! Some people are just trash.

OP You’re aware of the latest US election results and you still ask this question?

[quote]At least I now know who to blame that my tv is always fucked up.

r78 That's not your TV, Rose. It's your microwave.

r77 The fact that you read that and somehow deduced that I'm still in entry level IT support is exactly the 'shade of simpleton' I'm referring to. At least you wear it well.

mao = teafake, correct?

r87 No.

Mao swears not to be teacake, r87. But it talks just like it, so...

Extremely.

r89 And he makes it clear he's not me. Because we're not the same person. What exactly would be gained from his denial of being me, and only me, after acknowledging every other handle he's had, anyway? The 'criteria' used to prove we're the same person is asinine.

How about confused how to deal with cash and give back change at a store? Or writing a letter and can’t fill out a name and return address?

Easiest thing to do is block both Mao and teacup.

Lovely idea. I had started blocking everyone who started that 'mao is teacake' nonsense, and will return to the practice post haste. You people are not worth the headache, at all.

So dumb! They don't even know they're being used and played.

I think a better way to describe people like the one OP references is that they're just unaware. They aren't actually stupid, they just have such a limited exposure to facts and information that they don't know the answer to something like that. It baffles me that people can't name states or countries on a map - and I'm not talking about small countries in Asia or Africa - I mean Washington State, Maine, Arizona, Italy, France, England. I want to slap them.

I recently rented a house that I used to live in. I told the renters that I just wanted to clean out some things in the kitchen, including my mortar and pestle! Ha ha ha ha.

How stupid?

There are liberals telling each other how being beaten 0-3 in the election was really a close call.

Like the passengers of the titanic saying that most of the cruise was really great with just one small,problem.

R98, this election was, electorally at least, the inverse of the ‘20 race, with Trump flipping the six battleground states Biden himself had flipped in ‘20. I don’t recall the right treating that election as some mandate for epic change. In fact, they insist, to this day, that Trump won that election. At least the left isn’t so “stupid” to be making this claim about this most recent election.